BÀI GIẢNG DẠNG VĂN BẢN (SCRIPT)

Môn học: Grammar

Chương 1: Nouns & Articles

Chủ đề 1.1: Nouns

Phần 1.2

1 Next, let’s move on to the next part of the lesson: Compound noun.
In this part, we will find out some features of compound nouns like gerund;
2
apostrophe or compound nouns; materials and substances.
When a noun has two or more parts, we call it a compound noun.
We can make compound nouns with the –ing form like dancing-shoes
✔The –ing form can sometimes be an adjective
For example: crying baby, hugging couple, speeding car, ...
We can see that when the -ing form is an adjective, we stress both words and never
3
use a hyphen.
✔The –ing form is the first part of a compound noun.
When the -ing form is a noun, we stress the 1st word only and a hyphen is
optional
For example: fishing-rod, sleeping-bag...
We use the apostrophe S ('s) and S apostrophe (s') with people or something living
to show possession.
For example: Gus’s car, the girls’ shoes, a dog’s bank
4
And we use of for possession with things
When we want to say that one (non-living) thing is part of another, we can use of.
For example, the leg of the table. However, this can sound rather emphatic, so we
 often use a compound noun instead (e g the table-leg for things which are closely
associated)
Alright, let’s move to compound nouns which tell us about materials and
substances.
Names of materials and substances (leather, gold) are like adjectives when we use
them to form compound nouns.
5 For example:
a watch made of gold -> a gold watch.
These words behave like adjectives in this one way, but they remain nouns because
they do not have comparative or superlative forms and we cannot put ‘very’ in front
of them.
However, we have two exceptions are wood and wool, which have adjectival forms:
6 A table made of wood -a wooden table
A dress made of wool-a woolen dress
There are adjectival forms for words like gold:
glass/glassy,
gold/golden
leather/leathery
7
silver/silvery
silk/silky
For example:
A golden sunset (= a sunset like gold)
Now, let’s move to the second part of Nouns today: Countable and Uncountable
Noun.
8
First, let’s compare between countable and uncountable nouns.
If a noun is countable:
 we can use a/an in front of it like a book an envelope
- It has a plural and can be used in the question How many? like How many
stamps ‘envelopes? - Four stamps/envelopes
- We can use numbers one stamp; two stamps
If a noun is uncountable
We do not normally use a/an in front of it like Sugar is expensive does not
normally have a plural and it can be used in the question How much? How much
meat/oil?
We can say: A lot of meat; A little oil
We cannot normally use a number (one two) in front of it.
In English, some nouns can be used either countable or uncountable, but with
different meanings:
+ Some nouns are countable when they refer to single items but are
uncountable when they refer to substances.
Example:
9
COUNTABLE NOUNS
He ate a whole chicken!
(a single item)
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Would you like some chicken? (Food)
Some nouns are uncountable when they refer to a material, but they are countable
when they refer to an object made from that material.
COUNTABLE NOUNS
10 I picked up a stone.
(thing)
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
We used stone to build our walls.
 (material)
Let’s discover some nouns which can be either countable or uncountable
COUNTABLE MEANING UNCOUNTABLE MEANING

We keep six chickens in our garden. Do you like chicken? (food)

(animals)
A coffee and two teas, please. (cups of Sam prefers lemon tea. (drink)
tea)
Did you get a paper today? (a I need some writing paper. (material
newspaper) for writing on)
11
You can stay with us. There is a spare You can’t sit here. There isn’t room.
room (a room in a house) (space)
I had some interesting experiences on Experience is more important than
holiday. (things that happened to me) qualifications. (learning by doing
something)
Did you hear a noise just now? (a Using a single chip reduces the noise
specific noise) on the output signal by 90 percent. (bad
change in signal, especially in a signal
produced by an electronic device).
To refer to one or more quantities of an uncountable noun, expressions such as a
bit of, a piece of, an item of or words for containers and measures must be used.
12 E.g., a loaf of bread, a slice of bread, a drop of rain, a tin of soup...
We use a coat, a shirt instead of a clothing or a suitcase, a room instead of a
luggage, an accommodation when we have to say exactly what we want.
Some nouns are always in plural form, but they are uncountable because we cannot
use numbers with them. Other nouns of this type are shorts, pants, pajamas, glasses
13
(for the eyes), binoculars, scissors.
E.g., I bought two pairs of trousers.
 + A number of nouns, like information, are countable in many languages, but they
are uncountable in English. This means we cannot use a/an in front of them or give
them a plural.
E.g., I’d like some information, please. (Not an information, not informations)
We have some other cases like:
+ News is plural in form but takes a singular verb. e.g., The news is bad.
14
+ Hair is singular. My hair is long (Not ‘my hairs are…’). We use hairs only
for individual strands of hair. There are three hairs on my nose.
That is the end of the first part of Nouns. Today we’ve learnt about one-word nouns,
15 compound nouns, countable and uncountable nouns. Thank you for your listening
and let’s move to the second part.